Exhaustion eliminates championship curling game in Windsor

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The Windsor Curling Club played host to the Spitfire Arms Pub Cashspiel recently, with a pot of $5,600 available for the top finishers.

When it was all over, the championship game between Falmouth's Mark Kehoe and Truro's Colleen Pinkney was not held due to exhaustion. The two rinks opted to split the $2,500 cash set aside for the first and second place teams.

A total of 16 competitive curling teams converged on the Windsor curling rink, with six teams coming from the Mayflower Curling Club in Halifax, three from CFB Halifax, and two from the Glooscap Curling Club in Kentville. Rinks from Windsor, Chester, Truro, Bridgetown and Dartmouth all had single entries.

The third and fourth place teams took home $750 apiece and the fifth through eighth place teams all collected $400.

Les Reid, the Windsor Curling Club president, was pleased with the turnout.

“The weekend spiel shows the community is busy and it was great to drive by the curling club and see practically every parking spot full."

Reid noted it was also great for the area’s hotels and restaurants.

Kehoe and Richard Barker, teammates from the 2007 Canadian Labatt Tankard, skipped competing rinks at the cashspiel. Kehoe finished 3-0 in the round-robin while Barker did not make it to the playoff round, finishing at 1-2.

Barker's wife Shelley, who led for Anne Dillion's CFB Halifax entry, also missed the playoffs with a 1-2 mark.

Round-robin curling started at 8:30 a.m. Nov. 30, and went non-stop until 11:30 p.m. that night. The quarter-final playoffs began early in the morning of Dec. 1.

Windsor's Courtney Smith, who plays second for Marg Cutcliffe's rink out of the Mayflower, saw her rink go 3-0 in the round-robin.

In quarter-final play Sunday morning, Kehoe faced Dartmouth's Kent Smith and won to advance to the semi-final round. Kehoe jumped in front 2-1 before scoring three in the fifth for the 6-2 final.

Cutcliffe, meanwhile, downed Tanya Phillips to advance to a semi-final against Pinkney’s rink.

In the game featuring two hometown men, Barker and Kehoe, Kehoe emerged victorious with a 6-3 final. He posted three in the third and a pair in the sixth, with the game called after six ends.

Barker's only win came in the form of a 7-3 victory over Doug Bryant of Bridgetown.

In Sunday's semi-finals, Cutcliffe, who had not lost in weekend play, ran into Truro's Pinkney’s foursome and went cold.

Windsor's Smith, from the Cutcliffe's rink, still hoping for a shot at the National Ladies Championship in 2014, was disappointed as she saw Pinkney's team score one in the first, two in the third and then take command with a four-ender in the sixth for a 7-2 victory.

Kehoe had no difficulty in the other semi-final as he cruised to an 8-3 win over Shea Steele from Halifax. Kehoe scored a pair in both the first and fifth ends and added another three in the third end. The game was called after five ends.